Inside The Manufacture: Minerva Is The Watchmaking Jewel Within Montblanc And Showcases Its Talents With A New Art Piece

On a cool but sunny September morning in the Swiss village of Villeret, inside a low-slung 19th-century building, about 20 skilled artisan decorators, finishers, engineers, and watchmakers are at work. Producing fewer than a thousand watches each year, they carry on the legacy of Minerva, a manufacturer that has been here since 1858. 

The work, carried out on a small but steady scale, is detailed, slow, and meticulous. In one room, a veteran staffer with more than two decades at the company shapes, trims, and fits the in-house balance springs entirely by hand, using decades-old tools to ensure they oscillate precisely at 2.5 hertz. It takes half a day to produce a single hairspring, destined for watches assembled by the atelier’s own makers—and Minerva remains one of the last Swiss brands to produce its own.

Minerva is part of the Swiss watchmaking division of Montblanc, the German-based maker also known for their high-end writing instruments (aka pens), which is part of the Swiss luxury goods conglomerate Richemont. While Montblanc, which has another manufacture up the road in Le Locle, produces watches on a larger scale, Minerva represents and makes hand-finished and assembled, haute horlogerie Swiss watches bearing the Montblanc name. Within the brand, it serves as the watchmaking halo.

“We want to be different,” says Laurent Lecamp, Montblanc’s Global Managing Director for Timepieces, Writing Instruments, and Accessories, speaking about Minerva’s role within both the company and the broader Swiss watch industry.

Minerva is a historic brand, rich in history, that has long played a central role in the production of Swiss watches. It began as a supplier and movement maker with the name and trademark ‘Minerva’ (the Roman goddess of wisdom, arts, handcrafts, and war) being registered in 1887. Over time, it developed a reputation for creating top-notch chronographs able to measure to 1/100th of a second. It even handled the timing duties at the 1936 Winter Olympic Games in Garmisch, Germany.

Today, chronographs remain a central pillar of the Minerva output. Under Lecamp, the brand developed and debuted a novel type of chronograph movement that is operated through the precious metal bezel. Think of a monopusher chronograph but without the pusher. The watchmaker also produces so-called inverted or reverse chronograph movements that move the complex mechanical components and the chronograph’s regulating organ to the dial side, making them visible to the wearer.

Minerva also showcases its movement-making prowess, which is also renowned for its tourbillon movements, specifically its ‘Exo’ tourbillon that features the balance wheel positioned outside and above the tourbillon cage. 

Of the 20 employees at Minerva, eight are watchmakers. Lecamp says the brand will service and repair any watch Minerva has produced during its long history, a promise that keeps the atelier busy. There is also a personal touch, as recent clients of the high-end Minerva timepieces can speak with and ask questions of the actual watchmaker at Minerva who built and assembled the movement for their watch. It’s that bespoke and individual experience that makes Lecamp, a competitive extreme marathon runner, refer to Minerva owners as “fans” rather than clients.

It isn’t just about the mechanics. In the finishing and decoration workshop, skilled artisans and finishers employ techniques to add Côtes de Genève striping, mirror polishing, perlage, and anglage to the movement decoration, which often features German silver for the bridges.

One of the employees demonstrating finishing techniques with bridges and rotors mounted on a hockey puck when we visited the atelier says she has been with Minerva for more than 15 years. When her workday here is finished, she says she will return to her nearby farm to tend to her animals, which include dairy cows.

Under Lecamp’s leadership, the Minerva marque is going against the grain of industry trends of reducing and minimizing packaging and box materials for high-end watches. Rather than stepping back from large and intricate boxes and packaging, the company is leaning in. Its exceptional, limited-edition pieces feature unique, sometimes one-off watch boxes made in Switzerland or Europe, using intricately finished and carved wood, as well as other luxury materials. These boxes are designed to be displayed and not hidden away in a closet.

“We want them to be conversation pieces,” Lecamp says of the Minerva watch boxes. 

Minerva’s unique savoir-faire, movement construction, and métiers d’art culminate in a limited-edition timepiece unveiled this week. The New Montblanc Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Château de Versailles Limited Edition has it all.

It’s an ambitious project that aims to tell a unique aspect of the famous French castle’s history. The watch tells the story of a notorious party at Versailles that happened in 1745. The soirée was held to celebrate the upcoming marriage of King Louis XV’s son, but it may be best remembered for the King himself mingling with guests as he and his entourage were each dressed as large yew trees. The unusual costume, so the story goes, allowed the ruler to flirt with Madame d’Etiolles, a beautiful  Parisian who would soon become the official court mistress of the king and take the title of the Marquise de Pompadour.

The new watch, produced in just eight pieces, uses hand decoration on the dial, case, caseback, and movement to tell the story of that evening that the local press at the time dubbed the ‘Yew Tree Ball’ and the events in the famous Versailles Hall of Mirrors, which was a key location for the drama.

Like the party it commemorates, the watch is filled with detail. The 18k gold dial base features traditional techniques, including enameling, micro-painting, and inlays of marble and oak. These are set in striking contrast with modern methods, including 3D laser-etched depictions on sapphire and brass that bring the ball’s figures and its glittering chandeliers to life.

On the bezel of the 18-karat gold case is a hand-engraved laurel wreath that Montblanc says is a nod to victory. The case band is also hand-engraved and features a recreation of a painting by François Lemoyne in which Louis XV is offering an olive branch to all of Europe. The movement’s bridges and gear train, largely visible through the transparent caseback, are finished by hand, including decorative work such as Côtes de Genève striping, circular graining, mirror-polishing, perlage, and inner angle beveling.

Finally, there is the box and packaging, which, in Montblanc style, are truly part of the experience of this unique watch, which is priced at €249,000. The box for the Montblanc Star Legacy Suspended Exo Tourbillon Château de Versailles was constructed by a Parisian luxury table-maker named Elie Bleu. The music box inside is from Switzerland’s Reuge, and plays a tune presented at Versailles to celebrate the wedding in 1745, with music written by Jean-Philippe Rameau and lyrics originally written by Voltaire.

Without the Minerva movement and finishing prowess, the mainstream Montblanc brand would struggle to compete in the world of exclusive, haute horology offerings. However, the legacy and institutional knowledge developed over more than a century at the atelier in Villeret gives it the skills to create unique timepieces vying for the attention of the most well-heeled collectors seeking something truly distinct, such as the Versailles timepiece. 

For more on Minerva and Montblanc click here.